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The Western Samoan Head of State, His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili II, will bestow a chiefly title on the President of Hawaii's Polynesian Cultural Center, Lester Moore, Saturday morning, May 10.

Honoring Moore for the Center's work in making visitors from throughout the world aware of Samoan culture, the formal investiture ceremonies will take place at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, near Honolulu. It will be the first time for His Highness to award a chiefly title outside of Samoa.

While in Hawaii, Malietoa also will open the Fifth Annual World Fire Knife Dance Competition.

In addition, he will preside over this year's We Are Samoa Festival at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Festival activities will include coconut-husking, basket-weaving, and Samoan food preparation, as well as traditional singing, dancing, and story telling.

Political leaders from throughout the Pacific will arrive in Honolulu this week to pay final respects to the late Peter Tali Coleman, three-term Governor of American Samoa, who died at his Honolulu home of liver cancer April 28. He was 77.

Peter Coleman, Jr., one of the Governor's thirteen children, told the Honolulu PACNEWS Bureau that funeral services will take place Saturday morning, May 10, at 7:30 a.m., at St. Augustine's Church in Waikiki, followed by internment at Diamond Head Memorial Park at approximately 10:45 a.m.

The previous evening, the Governor's body will be on public view at St. Augustine's from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., followed by a requiem mass and all-night vigil.

Among the many leaders expected to personally bid farewell to Governor Coleman are the King of Tonga, Taufa' ahau Tupou IV; Fiji's President, Ratu Kamisese Mara; Samoa's Head of State, Malietoa Tanumafili, II; and the current Governor of American Samoa,...

The number of people traveling from Pacific Islands countries, Australia, and New Zealand to visit Hawaii continues to decline significantly.

First quarter 1997 figures released by the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau show a regional decline of almost 24 percent compared to the same three-month period last year.

During March alone, New Zealand visitors dropped 19-point-two per cent. Australian visitors decreased 22 per cent.

While overall Hawaii tourism totals for the month of March showed a modest increase over March 1996, particularly from the U.S. Mainland, year to date comparison figures remain in the negative column by one-point-four per cent

To help offset the decline in tourist numbers, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau is increasing marketing activities, particularly in California and Japan.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.